STAR TREK: USS IO: FROZEN JULY
by James Roots
Summary: The Starship USS IO makes on amazing discovery. Could it be real?


**Frozen July**

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**Chapter 1**

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><p>"What the hell do you mean the fragments are from Earth?" Captain Ocean stared at her stellar cartographer.<p>

"The isotopic ratios confirm the fragments come from the near Earth asteroid Eros" Terra answered. "The asteroid vanished in the old earth calender year of twenty fifty from near earth orbit."

Terra paused and looked at the captain, who nodded for her to continue. "Or at least that is when the earth astronomers noticed Eros was gone."

"What do you mean?" Chief Scientist Alem frowned at Terra. "Are you implying that it might have vanished earlier then twenty fifty?"

Terra swiveled her chair to face Alem.

"That period of Earth's history is not very well documented. Due to various political upheavals and wars, the records are very sparse. Especially scientific records. It was only after first contact that there was a resurgence of interest in science. Particularly in astronomy. It was astronomer John Burke, who discovered Sherman's planet, who first noticed that Eros was gone."

Terra shrugged her shoulders. "It was dismissed as a mapping mistake by the mid twenty first century astronomers."

"How would they make such a mistake, it seems unlikely?" Alem asked Terra, his frown deepening.

"They did not make a mistake. I did a search of Io's database and found many references to the missing asteroid. I also found the Vulcan surveyor ship's charts, that visited the Sol system roughly at the same time." She paused at glanced at Captain Ocean. Who raised her eyebrows, leaned forward and held her breath.

"In fact, Burke himself made a request to the Vulcan high command for the star charts from the ship that surveyed the Sol system. Initially the Vulcans refused, but later towards the end of Burke's life they relented and released the charts to him."

Terra turned to face the Vulcan chief of Security, P'ren, who quickly arched his right eyebrow at her, but remained silent.

"Please, Terra, continue." The Captain prompted her cartographer.

Terra sighed, stood up and moved to the large windows in the conference room. Captain Ocean rolled her eyes. She had learned, a long time ago, that her slender stellar cartographer liked drama, but more so, she liked to think on her feet. Captain Ocean smiled to herself, she didn't mind the personal quirks of her crew-members, as long as the quirks did no interfere with their duties.

"Burke compared the data from Earth and Vulcans and found that in fact Eros was real." Terra swept her long slender hand at the star-field behind the windows. "Not only that, but, Burke was able to map the disturbances in the orbits of near earth asteroids that was caused by the departure of Eros from the Sol system."

"How sure are you? Percentage wise, that the debris field we found, was, is, part of Eros?" The Captain asked Terra.

"One hundred and ten percent," Terra answered immediately and crossed her arms over her chest. Her intense black eyes staring at Captain Ocean.

"Are you scanning me?" Captain Ocean widened her eyes at Terra.

"No sir, sorry sir." Ensign Terra blushed, quickly looked away from her Captain's gaze and sat down back into her brown chair. The Andorian first contact specialist, Dariom, snickered at her, but grew quiet when the Captain turned to face him.

"The radiometric scans and radiogenic decay indicate that the fragments were blow off the Eros asteroid in the old earth year of twenty fifty three." Said the chief engineer, after clearing his throat.

"Isn't that when world war three ended on Earth?" The Captained turned to face Smith. Then added, "Are the two events somehow related?"

"Unlikely," Alem answered. "The asteroid was fifteen hundred light years away from Earth by then."

"How did the debris field get here. And, doesn't that mean that Eros asteroid actually was here?" The Captain asked.

"We did a retro orbit analysis of the debris field." Smith pointed at Terra, who was still blushing and had her eyes glued to the desk in front of her.

"I can say with one hundred percent surety that the asteroid Eros was here three hundred and twenty eight years ago, and suffered a massive explosion on its surface, thus creating the debris field we found."

"Are you sure it was an explosion?" Captain Ocean asked.

"Not only that, it was caused by a fission reactor that exploded, or at least, most likely, the reactor suffered a catastrophic melt-down."

"How would you know that?" The Captain asked in surprise.

"Anywhere there are high neutron fluxes, there is always neutron activation radiation. It happens when an atomic nuclei captures a neutron and becomes radioactive. We..." chief engineer Smith motioned and Alem and Terra. "...Found traces of such radiation on and in the debris. It goes with out saying, that radioactive fingerprints of this nature usually result from artificial sources."

"What mister Smith is saying is that the radiation that is present in the debris field can only be there as a result of directed efforts of intelligent beings." Alem explained, then added. "Plus the amount of the radioactive fragments imbedded in the debris indicates a massive neuron flux."

"Which means what?" The captain asked.

"They had a humongous nuclear reactor." Terra blurted out, still staring at the desk.

"They? Nuclear reactor?" Captain Ocean gave Terra a questioning look. "Who are they?"

"No idea," Dariom, said.

"We found some partial graphemes on one of the larger fragments. But, so far we are unable to translate any of them. The universal translation protocol is saying that the graphemes are nothing more than gibberish. We..." Dariom fidgeted in his chair. "...I...have never seen an alphabet structure as complex as this. There are over one hundred and twenty six graphemes in total. But there are no particular patterns to these graphemes, as in a normal language. Of course the sample that we have is fairly small. It might be impossibly to translate the written graphemes that we found due to lack of sufficient data." Dariom spread his arms and leaned back into his brown chair. "I want to request a comprehensive data mine to be implemented on the Federation Central Archives."

"What makes you think there is anything in the federation archives that might match anything that we found here?" Commander Renji stood up and hollered.

"This is absurd. How in the universe do you think a thirty four kilometer asteroid got here. No warp drive, no nothing." He threw his arms up in the air. "It's just a hunk of rock, in space, dead."

Captain Ocean rolled her eyes. "Abarai sit down, for once, can you just sit quietly and listen?" Captain Ocean gave him a fake smile.

"But captain..."

"Don't captain me. Sit your ass down." She ordered.

"This is total crap." He plopped back down in his chair. "We where sent here to find the Typhoon fleet." He shook his wild red hair. "If the Typhoon leet is hiding here we need to find them now and kick their sorry ass."

"Are you out of your mind?" Captain Ocean jumped up, her blond head boobing up and down.

"Here we go again." Lieutenant Commander Alem said and rubbed his head.

"What fleet?" Captain Ocean screamed at Renji.

"We have been out here for three mouths." She thrust her hand at the star-field outside her conference room.

"I don't care about your fighting spirit, or your delusions of having warriors blood. I am..." She pointed at her chest.

"...tired of trying to find this phantom fleet. There is nothing here. I am bored the hell out of my mind. The moment we found something remotely interesting, you went nuts. I know my god damned orders. Okay." She fell back into her chair, breathing rapidly.

"That is precisely the reason we should keep looking for the Typhoon fleet. Your are looking for a reason, any reason, to abandon your orders, to alleviate your boredom." Renji smiled at Ocean.

"Shut your face." Ocean put her elbows on the brown conference table and her beautiful but tired face into her palms. "Just shut up, okay."

"If I may interject." Terra started.

"Yes, go ahead." The Captain answered rubbing her temples. Terra glanced at Renji who was scowling at her.

"I was able to extrapolate the the probable trajectory of the asteroid, based on the collective motion of the debris field. The asteroid was headed towards a blue hyper giant, forty five light years away from us." Terra stole a glance at her captain. Ocean's eyes lit up, she jumped up, turned to her pilot and said.

"Set course for the star, now," She ordered him.

"Yes sir." Said the blond human and left to implement his orders.

"But captain, the Typhoon Fleet..."

"Screw you..." Captain Ocean barked at Renji, got up and quickly strutted out of the conference room.

"You know, when Admiral Nacheyev, told me I would be pulling double duty on Io, I had no idea I would be a babysitter as well." Said the elderly counselor, to no one in particular and got up to leave, then hesitated at the door way.

"I know that the war took a toll on the fleet's personal. But, you guys are worse than teenagers."

"Nice going. Renji." Alem stood up and left.

"What?" Renji asked spreading his arms. "Star-fleet would not have promoted us to our current positions if we weren't capable."

"Lets just say they didn't have a large pool of candidates to choose from." Terra said and left too.

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**Chapter 2**

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><p>"<em>Captains log. <em>

_ Star-date 25486.22.41. _

_ The USS Io is currently en route to a type ten a, blue hyper giant star. My stellar cartographer, __Terra, everyone calls her stellar, because, you know she has a stellar body, ha ha ha. I think the __human-betazoid hybrid has a thing for me. Well she found a piece of a rock, well a bunch of rocks, that came from Eros. Crap. Eros. She found a bunch of Erotian rocks. He he he. Anyway she is getting to me. Her intense black eyes are disconcerting. To put it mildly, I like her, but she freaks me out. Oh crap, this is an official log. I shouldn't be talking about my personal stuff._

_ Oh yea, we should arrive at Big Blue. Yes that is what the crew have named the star in question. Anyway, we will get there in several days. It's been a long boring journey, but hey, we may find Eros. It just burns me up, that Titan has made so many amazing discoveries and we have made zilch. They are making a name for themselves. Just once I would like to make some awesome discovery, prove we are not a bunch of losers. _

_ The crew of misfits, I heard us being called once. I bet that is the reason why I got this assignment. Why the frell would a typhoon fleet be doing out here. Damn it. _

_ Anyway, I am going to pay Terra a visit. See where it goes."_

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><p>"What the hell do you mean the orders to find the Typhoon Fleet were bogus?" Captain Ocean yelled the second time. She had just came back from Terra's quarters when her scheduled call with Star-fleet Command came in.<p>

"We have been out here at the edge of the Local Spur for six months searching for the phantom fleet and now you tell me it was all fake?" Captain Ocean slowly sat down into her chair.

"I was always skeptical of the data that generated the orders I gave you." Admiral Nechayev said.

"But, with the Typhoon Pact, I couldn't take the chance, even if it sounded like nonsense. I had to send you out to investigate. The report came from one of our senior analysts at the Star-fleet Intelligence Office. And like I said. I couldn't ignore that, even though something felt off. When your request for the data mine came in, I rechecked the background of the officer who prepared the report. Guess what I found."

"What?" Ocean asked.

"The agent doesn't exist."

"What?" Ocean jumped up and send the chair flying into a wall behind her. "How is that even possibly?"

"I have no idea," The admiral smiled at her, "but as you can imagine the SIO is up in arms. So is Star-fleet Command. And..."

Admiral Nechayev leaned close to her holographic pickup and her voice took on a conspiratorial tone.

"...Akar is pretty pissed, he thinks it's my fault, somehow."

"Is it?" Ocean asked. The Admiral Smiled at Ocean and leaned back into her plush chair.

"Of course not. It's SIO's problem, not ours. Did you follow the course that I sent you as precisely as you should have?" Admiral Nechayev asked.

"More or less," The Captain answered avoiding eye contact. The Admiral sighed and asked.

"Were you on the prescribed course when you discovered the debris field?"

"To the letter." Captain Ocean smiled, then asked "Why?"

"Akar thinks we where manipulated by someone. Fairly advanced and very familiar with star fleet protocols. Someone did this so we..." The Admiral pointed at herself. "...would send you..." The admiral pointed at Ocean, "...out there. Some admirals seem to think this might be a first contact situation. Be very careful, keep your guard up. Someone or something wanted you out there, for some reason." A chill went up Ocean's spine as the meaning of Admiral Nechaeyv's words dawned on her.

"You are young, inexperienced, and so is your crew. I would have preferred to keep you and your ship close to the core. Whatever is playing with us, it might be dangerous."

"Gee, thanks for the vote of confidence, Admiral." Ocean said, picked up her chair, sat down into it and kicked her feet up onto her table.

"I am serious, Tammy. Don't screw this up. Update me every chance you have. I mean it." Admiral said and signed off.

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**Chapter 3**

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><p>"We detected it four light years out from Big Blue." Dariom said looking at Captain Ocean.<p>

"It's ten songs, five human and five alien, playing over and over again. The aliens are called the Drow. I have analyzed the contents of the songs. All of the lyrics, all the songs, talk about loss, shame and regret. Both human and drow. Loss, shame, regret. Over and over again."

"What about the human songs? Can you date them?" Captain Ocean asked Dariom.

"Yes, the songs were all from the early, very early, twenty first century." Dariom answered.

"Well, what are they doing out here?"

"Who?" Dariom looked at his captain.

"Who else, the Drows and the Humans." The captain stood up. "What were they doing out here in the middle of nowhere. What do we know about this system." Captain Ocean turned to Terra. Who turned red as a tomato.

"I...ah...Um. Sir. The signal expands in a roughly spherical bubble out from Big Blue. The bubble is six hundred and six light years in diameter." Terra managed.

"Can you speak up," Renji hollered at Terra. "I can barely hear you."

"Sorry sir." she said. Captain Ocean frowned at Terra.

" Are you telling me the signal is three hundred and eight years old?" Ocean said.

"Give or take a decade," Terra mumbled.

"Wow," the Captain said and sat down. Dariom's padd issued a series of hideously annoying and complex tones.

"Oops," He silenced the padd, "There results of the data mine are here." He jumped up. "I will need your help," He looked at Terra and Smith. Captain Ocean nodded her approval and the three filed out.

"So," Captain Ocean snickered at Renji. Who sat dejected. "Still want to go search for the Typhoon Fleet." She burst out into giggles and then left the conference room.

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**Chapter 4**

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><p>Captain stood and stared at the frozen wasteland stretching into vastness. It was difficult to breath in the thin subzero atmosphere and her lungs burned painfully with each wheezing breath she took. It was a frozen white hell. The frozen black spire rose two kilometers into the white swirling sky, even with two layers of cold gear on, Captain Ocean could still feel the biting cold.<p>

"Well," Ocean turned to face the bundled form of Terra. "What do you think." Ocean screamed.

Terra motioned at her ears, that she could not hear over the howling wind. Captain Ocean leaned her face close Terra's face, so that their thick hoods matched symmetrically and excluded the bitterly cold wind.

"What do you think," Captain Ocean tried again looking at the blushing cartographer.

"How about we go inside and warm up?" Terra turned a deep red when she realized how she sounded.

"I am sorry, um...I didn't mean it...that way." She stuttered and not just from the cold.

"It's okay, I know what you meant. It's a good idea, let go inside." Captain Ocean hooked Terra under her arm and they both shuffled of towards the entrance at the base of the radio spire.

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**Chapter 5**

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><p>"It's a tomb." Alem stood shivering inside a massive chamber. "Six thousand Drow and four thousand Humans. All entombed in stone. Stone that they mined from this hell hole." He blew at his hands and vigorously rubbed them together.<p>

"Must have been one hell of a war." Renji stuttered.

"And far more regret, for them to invest so much energy in the memorial." Smith added.

"Where are they now?" Renji asked.

"They left the Orion Cygnus spur for the Perseus arm." Dariom answered, then added, "don't ask me why."

"Ten thousand light years of nothing but cold dark emptiness." Renji shivered. "Enough to freeze my soul just thinking about it."

"But think about it. Abarai. A whole new galactic arm to explore. No Borg, no Typhoon Pact, no nothing, just pure unexplored space." Alem shivered his way over to Commander's side.

The huge round chamber was crawling with dozens of engineers and scientists from Io, and even more crew-members, who had taken Captain Ocean's invitation for a shore leave. As cold and as lifeless as the moon was, the crew were on the verge of cabin fever and as a result many had ventured out to brave the cold barren planet.

"Ah, here came the snowbirds." Renji said, with half of his usual enthusiasm when he saw Captain Ocean and Ensign Terra enter the camber.

Terra detached from Captain Ocean and joined a small group of her crew-members huddled close to each other, who were admiring several huge statues. The large statues were made of gray polished stone and were of two beautiful couples, holding hands. A drow female with a human male and the other statue, was the opposite. A human female with a drow male. The statues we incredibly sculpted, with a massive amount of attention to detail and precision. There were twelve statues in total, in the large chamber. All set in a circle, all facing each other.

Four of the statues where very explicit, and portrayed, two mixed couples, drow and human, engaging in various stages of love. Captain Ocean noticed that her crew had congregated into several large groups, mostly around the love statues and where whispering excitedly between themselves. She smiled to herself as she approached her Vulcan Doctor.

"Well, what do you have for me, J'on." Captain Ocean asked. The elderly Vulcan closed his tricorder and turned to face Ocean.

"If you mean, were they physically compatible? Then yes," J'on motioned at the love statues.

"And, based on the preliminary DNA analysis. Most likely the human males where able to successfully impregnate the drow females. The same was true for drow males and human females. However I will not be one hundred percent certain until Io's medical computer finishes it's complete analysis of the DNA samples that we took from the tombs."

"When will the complete analysis be available?" Ocean asked. J'on raised his right eyebrow at Captain Ocean.

"The analysis should have been completed two hours and fifteen minutes ago."

"Really?" The captain shivered and stuck her hands deep into her pockets. "What is the hold up?"

"Several anomalies arose when I ran a DNA combination protocol. Based on the individual DNA sequences, human or drow, the offspring produced should be a straight forward combination of the two races. However the offspring's DNA became so complex that it became beyond the combination protocol's capacity to render." J'on explained to Ocean.

"What does that mean?" Ocean asked her teeth chattering.

"It would seem that, when human and drow DNA is combined, it produces on entirely new life form. With DNA that has metaphasic properties."

"A new life form?" Ocean frowned at J'on. Then held up a hand to silence J'on when he opened his mouth to speak and screamed.

"Damn it, Mister Smith, what is taking so long with the space heaters?"

Surprised, Smith turned around to face his captain, as her voice echoed around the chamber.

Then he trudged over to his captain. Or, at least he tried, it was more of a slow shuffle in the bulky inclement weather gear.

"Captain Ocean." Smith begun, out of breath, when he finally made it over to the captain.

"I have already set up twenty four portable space heaters. But it's to cold. It is no use." He pointed at the heaters installed around the chamber.

"Oh..." The Captain's blue eyes peeked out from under her heavy hood. "Oh..." she said louder.

"Oh...sorry...I didn't see them."

"It's okay," Smith assured her. "My brain is freezing too, plus I can barley see out, from under these hoods."

Ocean gave him her best possibly smile and said. "Carry on, then."

"Captain can I make a suggestion?" J'on started. "Perhaps we should continue our investigation on Io. I have gathered all the necessary data that I will need."

"Okay," Ocean shrugged her shoulders and screamed. "Renji." Again sending a massive echo throughout the chamber.

When Renji turned to face her, as everyone else in the chamber. She waved him over to herself.

As Renji shuffled over, J'on said. "Captain Ocean, personal communicators are currently the most popular form of long range communication in star-fleet. Perhaps you too should invest some of your replicator rations into a com-badge." Captain Ocean turned to face J'on and gave him a quizzing look, but did not say anything.

"Could you not scream at me like a maniac," Renji yelled at Ocean just as loud as she had at him, when he finally shuffled over.

Ocean stifled a load retort when she realized the whole chamber was staring at them. Instead she rolled her eyes, sighed and said.

"Commander Abarai, can you please inform the senior crew to report to the conference room in four hours. I want a full report on our discoveries." To her relief the Commander nodded and shuffled off without further insipidity, she did not feel like explaining to Renji why she had forgotten her com-badge on the ship.

"Two to beam up?" She asked J'on. Who nodded curtly at his captain and said, "Indeed." A second later the two forms dissolved in a shower of blue, swarming sparks.

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><p>\<p>

**Chapter 6**

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><p>"Congratulations," Admiral Nechaeyv smiled from the screen at all those who were present. The whole senior crew of Io.<p>

"You have caused quite a stir here. The whole scientific community is going crazy. But there is no denying it. We have just received the results from the Midas Array." She paused, everyone who was present in Io's conference room held their breath.

"At the coordinates that you have provided, in the Perseus arm of the Milky Way, at the star that was the destination of the drow and the humans and in it's general vicinity, the Midas Array found tens of thousands of warp drive signatures." Admiral Nechaeyv, smiled at them all again.

"In other words the humans and the drow, have build a massive civilization. I have new orders for you." Captain Ocean held her breath. The Admiral continued, "You are to rendezvous with USS Forge, transfer and install the special cargo they are bringing to you..."

"Wont it take them forever to get here?" Ocean interrupted and frowned at Nechaeyv, "We are one thousand and five hundred light years away from earth."

The admiral leaned back into her plush blue chair and rubbed her temples.

"Tammy, do you even bother reading the star-fleet briefs that I send you? You know it takes time to prepare those?" Nechaeyv asked.

Captain Ocean raised her eyebrows and moved her wide blue eyes rapidly from side to side.

Then shrugged and said. "I read...some."

Admiral Nechaeyv took a deep breath.

"USS Forge is a Vesta class ship, they will reach you in less then two weeks." She paused.

"They are bringing you a full suite of parts that where specifically designed for the Luna class ships. These parts will give your ship slipstream capability. As soon as the parts arrive you and your crew are to install, integrate and test the slipstream system. When and if..."

Nechaeyv leaned closer to the her holographic pick up head.

"...and that is a big if, but, when the slipstream systems check out, you are ordered to proceed to the Perseus arm and establish a peaceful and a long-lasting relationship, with the human-drow civilization."

Captain Ocean's eyes bulged. Did she just hear that. She wasn't going ask again.

"Tammy, meanwhile, I want you to read and reread every brief that I have send you for the last two years." Nechaeyv added.

"What?" Captain Ocean blurted out.

"Tammy, don't screw with me. Do as I have ordered. Okay. I swear I will make you take on exam on your reading assignment. You have..."

Admiral Nechaeyv paused and looked at all the present.

"You have a massive and complex assignment ahead of you, no more goofing off."

She paused as if to sign off. Then added.

"Oh, and by the way, I will have your heads on a platter if you screw up. I swear." Nechaeyv gave them a beaming smile and signed off.

"Yes...yes..." Captain Ocean started yelling and jumping up and down. "Finally..."

"Am I correct to assume that you overenthusiastic display of joy is the result of the exploration assignment and not the reading assignment?" T'pren asked.

"Shut up, mood killer." Was all the answer T'pren ever got.

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><p>\<p>

**Chapter 7**

/**  
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><p>"Dariom to Captain Ocean." Issued from Oceans com-badge. Captain Tammy Ocean sighed.<p>

_What the hell does he want? _She gingerly pushed the sleeping Terra of her side and crept out of bed to silence the com-badge. Terra mumbled something in her sleep and groped at the empty space where Ocean had just been.

"What the hell do you want?" She hissed into the com-badge.

"I am sorry, sir." Dariom replied. "But Captain Pike insists an being fully briefed before we get under way."

"I will fully brief my foot up his ass if he doesn't leave me alone."

"Sir." Dariom heisted. In the face of this amazing discovery and their new assignment, her crew had pulled together like never before. Ocean couldn't stake the claim of having the best crew in the fleet. But she was almost proud of them. Almost. But not yet. She sighed.

"Alright tell the asshole I will meet him in my ready room in one hour."

"Yes sir." Dariom signed off.

When Captain Pike first met Captain Ocean he had immediately taken a likening to her. And Captain Ocean developed an immediate dislike for him. It didn't help that he had hounded her everywhere she went during the installation and testing of the slipstream drive.

Captain Ocean uncovered Terra's foot and gently tickled it. When Terra moaned to be left alone, Ocean said.

"Terrachka, we have to get up, we have to go brief Pike." Terra buried her face into the pillow and pulled her blanket over her head.

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><p>"The Clean Slate Society?" Captain Pike took a long swig of his coffee mug. "Never heard of 'em." He sat the cup down with a loud bang and dug into his breakfast. Then wiped the egg drip from his beard.<p>

Captain Ocean glanced at Terra who had taken the farthest seat from Pike that she could find. Ocean glanced back at Pike, who spooned a large dripping egg into his mouth.

"Early bird gets the warm, eh." he blubbered at Ocean, who scooted away several feet form him.

"Anyway," Dariom said and continued. "The Clean Slate Society, was a very short lived forum, back in the early twenty first century."

"Forum." Pike interrupted.

"It was a form of a long range electronic massage communication board. It was very popular in the early part of the twenty first century. Anyways this group, they wanted to start over. Hence the name. We had no idea they existed, no idea at all. Their goals, their accomplishments. It was all erased by history. Until we found them."

"You haven't. Yet." Pike said.

"Whatever." Dariom said and continued.

"They did not in fact disband, as it was believed, by the twenty first century law enforcement agencies. In fact, they developed their own language, their own culture. Their own everything. From philosophy to politics to economy. Everything. Initially they wanted to build their own city, but some time between twenty ten and twenty fifty, they decided to leave Earth altogether. And presumably they build the Antarctica installation sometime between that time period."

"Yes a thing of beauty. Considering the technology and the resources, of that time period." Pike said through a mouthful.

"Star-fleet Archaeological Division is still digging out the installation. Plus there is a pissing contest going on, on who will ultimately be in charge of the investigation. This is hindering the excavation progress. So we don't know as much as we would like to know about the Predorem." Captain Ocean said. "But they used the magnetic rail, that they build in Antarctica to launch themselves into space. To reach Eros. We think."

"Predorem." Pike asked between bites of toast. Ocean fiddled with her spoon. "That is what the Drow and Human alliance decided to call themselves."

"What's it mean." Pike took another loud swig of his coffee. Ocean fidgeted in her chair, glanced at Terra, then answered.

"It means, 'Children Of The Lust'."

"Ah, the orgy." Pike smiled at Ocean. Who looked away.

"The Predorem called it 'The Union'."

"Right..." Pike bit into his toast."

"Somehow the Drow ark and the Human ship, Eros, ended up in orbit over Frozen July, they had a brief war. We know that the Drow started the war..."

"Frozen July?" Pike looked up in surprise from his plate. "Who named the moon?"

"I did." Terra answered.

"Seems like a silly name. How did you get to name the moon anyway?" Pike stopped eating and stared at Terra.

"Well, she, _is,_" the Captain emphasized. "The senior cartographer on this ship. You know, m-a-p m-a-k-e-r." Ocean spelled it out for him. Terra turned beet red.

"Oh," Pike said. "Oh..., Okay, what happened, next." He turned back to face Ocean and then dug into his plate. Ocean took her coffee cup, brought it up to her lips, made a slight pout and gently blew over the coffee.

"During the opening salvo the Drow ship suffered severe damage and the they lost most of their oxygen stores. They were dying from vacuum asphyxiation, this was probably why there is so much more drow entombed at the Frozen July memorial." Terra said.

"Seriously couldn't you have picked a better name." Pike asked with another mouthful.

"Better name?" Terra got up, her face flushed.

_Oh crap._ Captain Ocean smiled inwardly and took a long slow sip of her coffee. _Let 'em have it, hottie. _

"You woke me up in the middle of the night-shift, so I could tell you a story, and you bitch about my choice of naming conventions." Her sinews distended on her long neck as she hissed at Pike.

"I have better things to do." Terra glanced at her Captain. "Instead of indulging you delusions of self importance." She continued yelling at the stunned Pike without skipping a beat.

"The drow-human war started July first, the negotiation for a truce began July tenth, peace was declared on July thirteenth. The two ships initiated docking procedures on July fifteenth. The union happened on July thirty first." She paused and took a deep breath.

"The construction of the memorial was finished on July first, fifty years later. So as you can see I didn't just pluck..."

Terra made a motion with her right hand, as if grabbing something in the air.

"...the name out of thin air. Okay?"

Terra plopped back down into her brown chair, breathing rapidly.

_Oh wow._ This time Ocean couldn't help but smile, although she hid her smile behind the coffee mug.

"Okay, okay, peace." Pike held up his hands. "I was asked by star-fleet to prepare a comprehensive report on this whole situation. And you know how us old folk like to talk." He shrugged his shoulders at Terra.

"How did this union come about, it seems highly unlikely." Pike turned back to Ocean and then his breakfast. Captain Ocean nodded at J'on and slowly sipped her coffee.

"There is nothing improbable about the outcome. The drow secrete a pheromone that is a highly potent aphrodisiac. The most potent, that I have ever seen." The Vulcan doctor said. "The pheromones seem to effect only humans. No other species are effected."

"How is that possibly?" Pike asked surprised.

"The human biology is extremely sensitive to the pheromones. The pheromones are precisely tuned to mimic the neuron transmitters in the human brain that are responsibly for sexual arousal, desire, and romantic emotions, once they inter the blood stream."

"Are you saying this is artificial? The drow genetically engineered themselves?" Pikes eyes bulged, but he kept stuffing himself.

"No, There are many indication that the drow evolved this way. Not only that, but the drow pheromones have a calming effect on the human brain, also, the pheromones are highly addictive to humans." J'on explained.

"How could this be natural?" Pike asked and finally pushed his plate away. "It can't be a natural occurrence." He wiped his beard. Captain Ocean beamed at him and nodded for J'on to continue.

"The human pheromones have the exact same effect on the drow physiology." J'on simply stated.

"What?" Pike's mouth fell open.

"Humans posses weak pheromones, but to the drow the pheromones are anything but weak."

Captain Ocean set her mug down and stood up.

"Our pheromones effect the drow just as effectively as do theirs, us." She walked over to the widow.

"There is nothing more to discuss. I gave you all of the highly detailed reports that we have. I am eager to get underway. You are delaying our, my..." she pointed at her ample chest. "...launch. So if you could please, um, leave?"

"I know, I know...you are eager to leave. Well don't let me hold you up. Thank you for putting with me. Good day." He turned to leave.

"Yes, your visit was very enjoyable." Captain Ocean smiled at Pike as the doors shut behind him. She tapped her com-badge and said. "Ocean to Ops, the moment Captain Pike beams off, set course for the Perseus Arm. Maximum warp."

"Gladly sir." Replied her night-shift Chief Operations Officer.

"I can't believe he is a direct descendant of the legendary Captain Pike." Renji finally spoke up.

"He awakes." Ocean slowly raised her hands into the air.

"Hey," Renji sat up suddenly, staring at Ocean. "What happened to your chest?" He asked.

Terra turned beet red.

Ocean crossed her hands under her large bust and said.

"Oh, let just say its a fairly recent acquisition, as per the suggestion of a close friend." Ocean glanced at Terra.

"Why the hell would you..?" Renji started.

"Abarai, my appearance is of limits, okay, so just chill." Ocean said, walked around the conference table and sat down next to Terra, just as the ship accelerated to maxim warp.

"Ah," Ocean said when she felt the ship shudder slightly and go to warp. "Destiny awaits." she leaned over to Terra's side and lightly bumped Terra's shoulder with her's.

Who promptly turned beet red.

Again.


End file.
